USPTO Patents Application 09701705

^^^^^Sl^j ^^^^^^ States Patent and Trademark Office

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
P.O. Box 1450

Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450
www.uspto.gov

APPLICATION NO.

FILING DATE

FIRST NAMED INVENTOR

ATTORNEY DOCKET NO.

CONFIRMATION NO.

09/701,705

12/01/2000

Yukihiko Okumura

15689.61

7195

7590 02/27/2008

ADRIAN J. LEE

WORKMAN, NYDEGGER & SEELEY
1000 EAST GATE TOWER
60 EAST SOUTH TEMPLE
SALT LAKE CITY, UT 841 1 1

EXAMINER

GHULAMALI, QUTBUDDIN

ART UNIT

PAPER NUMBER

2611

MAIL DATE

DELIVERY MODE

02/27/2008

PAPER

Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.

The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication.

PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)

Office Action Summary

Application No.

09/701,705

Appllcant(s)

OKUMURA ETAL

examiner

Qutbuddin Ghulamali

Art Unit

2611

The MAILING DATE of this communication appears on the cover sheet with the correspondence address -
Period for Reply

A SHORTENED STATUTORY PERIOD FOR REPLY IS SET TO EXPIRE 3 MONTH(S) OR THIRTY (30) DAYS.

WHICHEVER IS LONGER. FROM THE MAILING DATE OF THIS COMMUNICATION.

- Extensions of time may be available under the provisions of 37 CFR 1.136(a). In no event, however, may a reply be timely filed
after SIX (6) MONTHS from the mailing date of this communication.

- If NO period for reply is specified above, the maximum statutory period will apply and will expire SIX (6) MONTHS from the mailing date of this communication.

- Failure to reply within the set or extended period for reply will, by statute, cause the application to become ABANDONED (35 U.S.C. § 1 33).
Any reply received by the Office later than three months after the mailing date of this communication, even if timely filed, may reduce any
earned patent term adjustment. See 37 CFR 1.704(b).

Status

I )^ Responsive to communication(s) filed on 25 December 2007 .
2a)n This action is FINAL. 2b)^ This action is non-final.

3) n Since this application is in condition for allowance except for formal matters, prosecution as to the merits is

closed in accordance with the practice under Ex parte Quayle, 1935 CD. 11, 453 O.G. 213.

Disposition of Claims

4) IEI Claim(s) 1,2,4-6,8, 18-20.22,23,33-37.47,49 and 53-85 is/are pending in the application.

4a) Of the above claim(s) is/are withdrawn from consideration.

5) iEI Claim{s) 1,2,4-6,8,18-20,22,23.33-37,47,49,53-61,64-77 and 80-85 is/are allowed.

6) KI Claim(s) 62. 78 is/are rejected.

7) [3 Claim(s) 63 and 79 is/are objected to.

8) n Claim{s) are subject to restriction and/or election requirement

Application Papers

9) n The specification is objected to by the Examiner.

10)0 The drawing(s) filed on is/are: a)n accepted or b)n objected to by the Examiner.

Applicant may not request that any objection to the drawing(s) be held in abeyance. See 37 CFR 1 .85(a).
Replacement drawing sheet(s) including the correction is required if the drawing(s) is objected to. See 37 CFR 1.121(d).

I I )□ The oath or declaration is objected to by the Examiner. Note the attached Office Action or form PTO-1 52.

Priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119

12)K Acknowledgment is made of a claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a)-(d) or (f).
a)IEl All b)n Some * c)^ None of:

1 Certified copies of the priority documents have been received.

2. n Certified copies of the priority documents have been received in Application No. .

3. n Copies of the certified copies of the priority documents have been received in this National Stage

application from the International Bureau (PCT Rule 17.2(a)).
* See the attached detailed Office action for a list of the certified copies not received.

Attachment(s)

1) S Notice of References Cited (PTO-892) 4) □ Interviews Summary (PTO-413)

2) □ Notice of Draflsperson*s Patent Drawing Review (PTO-948) Paper No(s)/Mail Date. .

3) □ Infomiation Disclosure Statement(s) (PTO/SB/08) 5) □ Notice of Informal Patent Application

Paper No(s)/Mail Date . 6) □ Other: .

U.S. Patent and Trademark OfTice
PTOL-326 (Rev. 08-06)

Office Action Summary

Part of Paper No./Mail Date 20080218

Application/Control Number: Page 2

09/701,705

Art Unit: 2611

DETAILED ACTION

1 . This Office Action is in response to Remarks/Arguments filed by the applicant on
12/05/2007.

Response to Remarks

2. Applicant's remarks filed 12/05/2007 with respect to claim claims 62 and 78 have
been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection. The rejection
based on new art follows.

Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103

3. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 (a) which forms the basis for all
obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:

(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set
forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and
the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the
invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains.
Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.

4. Claims 62, 78 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 (a) as being unpatentable over
Andoh (IEEE, "Channel Estimation Using Time Multiplexed Pilot Symbols for Coherent
Rake Combining for DS-CDMA Mobile Radio") in view of Iwamatsu et al (USP
6,487,236).

Regarding claim 78, Andoh discloses a demodulation method comprising:
weighting and averaging pilot signals using a plurality of weight sequences (fig. 2; page
954, col. 2, lines 1-3, 12-15, 24-37; page 955, col. 1, lines 4-17; col. 2, lines 14-20, 28-

Application/Control Number: Page 3

09/701,705

Art Unit: 2611

34, 37-40). Andoh does not explicitly disclose, deriving a plurality of demodulated data
sequences from a data sequence using said plurality of channel estimation values; and
selecting one output data sequence by making judgment of reliability of a plurality of
demodulated data. However, Iwamatsu discloses deriving a plurality of demodulated
data sequences from a data sequence using said plurality of channel estimation values
(col. 20, lines 52-64); and selecting one output data sequence by making judgment of
reliability of a plurality of demodulated data (col. 20, lines 65-67; col. 21, lines 1-14). It
would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention
was made to use a data sequence from a plurality of demodulated data sequences and
select an out sequence of optimum reliability of demodulated data from demodulating
unit as taught by Iwamatsu in the channel estimation of Andoh because by selecting an
output sequence from a plurality of data sequence having an optimum reliability it is
possible to perform more correct demodulation of correlated energies.

As per claim 62, the steps claimed as apparatus is nothing more than restating
the function of the specific components of the method steps as claimed above and
therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time
the invention was made to use the method as taught by the combined art of Ono and
Iwamatsu because it can allow insertion of pilot symbols to estimate channel response
of data symbols in a fading environment to mitigate noise and multi interference and
improve channel estimation accuracy.

Application/Control Number: Page 4

09/701.705

Art Unit: 2611

Allowable Subject Matter

5. Claims 1-2, 4-6. 8. 18-20, 22, 23, 33-37, 47, 49, 53-61, 64-77, 80-85 allowed.

6. Claims 63 and 79 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base
claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the
limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.

Conclusion

7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the
examiner should be directed to Qutbuddin Ghulamali whose telephone number is (571)-
272-3014. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday, 7:00AM -
4:30PM.

If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's
supervisor, Chieh M. Fan can be reached on (571) 272-3042. The fax phone number
for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.

Application/Control Number:

Page 5

09/701,705
Art Unit: 2611

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QG.

February 18, 2008.

CHIEHM.FAN
SUPERVISORY PATENT EXAMINER